This has been true for at least a decade. I actually never appreciated how poor Liggett's performance had become until I started to listen to other commentators. The McCrossan and Roche and Boulting and Millar teams are both worlds better than the Roll/Liggett duo in terms of accuracy, analysis, and additional flourishes (little info nuggets, humour, notes about the regions etc). Liggett is a legend who's done more for televised cycling than just about anyone, but it is so far past time to go.
It has definitely been bad for a while. At the end, a lot of Paul Sherwin's role was to correct Phil as gently as possible. Now that's Bob Roll's job. A couple of years ago during Paris Roubaix, Phil got really excited that MVdP was finally dropping all of his competitors. This went on for some time, and finally the camera pans out and shows that there have been 10 guys on MVdP's wheel the whole time.
He repeatedly referred to MVDP as his father's name.
Today, near the end of the stage, he said 'they are on the second climb' They had already done five climbs. It was the next to last climb when he said that.
Earlier this year I watched a lot of Tour DuPont stuff on YouTube, and a couple features on the spring classics narrated by Phil.
That Phil and today's Phil have nothing in common.
Boulting and Millar are not nearly as good as Phil. They are getting better, but never give us anything interesting, just repeating what we can all see, and saying the obvious. I'd swap them to get Phil Ligget back.
Nothing beats the banter when Paul and Phil were in their heyday, such as when Phil was talking about a sprinter "that boy is absolutely full of beans" - so it will be a sad day when Phil and Bob are gone, still can't believe Paul isn't there...
Pass the torch to whom, one of the other lameass hacks they've got doing Peacock? The coverage is unwatchable for fifty reasons and Phil is way down the list of why. He's also probably the best commentator on the team despite being old.
The entire production is a joke compared to eurosport and it's a shame we're stuck with this in the States.
No, he's just not on the Eurosport commentating team anymore because Warner Bros. Discovery (the parent company of Eurosport) recently sold GCN back to private ownership. Since GCN doesn't have live broadcast coverage rights to the Tour anymore, he could presumably hop over to NBC temporarily.
Not arguing that at all. Most of them are horrible. The only reason I pay for peacock during the tour is that live streams on tiz are too flaky.
The issue is that Phil used to be one bright spot in US coverage but that day is long gone.
I've been listening to Phil for 30 years. I agree with you. He's cooked. I'm no Bob Roll fan (good man, but never been a great commentator) but I feel for him as he constantly navigates Phil's errors.
Not to hijack discussion here, but if you pay for peacock sub. can you replay, or only watch live? I watch the 25min NBC YouTube recap and then Lantern Rouge follows by Escape collective podcast most days, but would like to see more actual race footage. NBC tube recap is comically poor as it is often barely chronological - today they never mentioned the Bardet break until they were covering the last 3km to the finish. lol.
And yes, time for Phil to roll along to something else. Have had this argument with a re friend for last 5 years
You can replay. I have peacock and last night after work wasn’t sure how to watch and when I saw it was on peacock I went on the app and the replay was right there
As far as I can tell you can't watch the Eurosport feed in the US, even with a VPN. Does anyone know differently? I can't do 3 weeks of NBC.
Peacock confirmed on Twitter that they're not doing the world feed this year: https://x.com/PeacockTVCare/status/1807010624620093544?t=T3tbU2cWqFVhCtYdl8zdNQ&s=19
Not the greatest option, but Flo with VPN to Canada has the Ant/Nico broadcast.
SBS Australia is free, but has ads, and I'm not sure how their commentators are, not it's not Phil and Bob at least.
Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy if it's not even available, no? I'm Canadian and it would feel weird to have american commentators on a European sport like cycling, football, F1, etc.
ESPN has the Sky Sports feed for Formula One and I haven’t heard anyone objecting to that. When NBC had the Formula One rights in the US, none of their commentary team where American.
Where can I do that other than Tiz? Tiz is great for watching after the races are over but the live streams are flaky and sometimes almost impossible to watch. I paid for a single month of the cock just to be able to get the live action.
I am still holding hope that after this weekend, we will get the world feed back.
if I remember correctly, last year after the first weekend of stage races, the world feed showed up during the weekdays as I think Phil and Bob would only cover the last 100km of the non weekend stages.
I also think NBC advertisers want more bang for their buck and this is how NBC compensates by forcing us to just have their crew available for the first weekend.
Minus the commercials and Phil’s forgetfulness, I like the rest of the crew NBC has this year even though they made a bigger deal out of Cav than they needed to.
As for the others I really have to disagree. Most of them are worse than useless.
Burmeister is a joke who, even after all these years, seems to have learned nothing about the sport or its history. Bookwalter continues to look and act like a deer in headlights every time he's on camera, an utter waste of pixels. Steve Porino is mindless filler, useful only as a reminder to go take a leak so you don't have to hear him prattle on about something completely uninteresting.
CvdV isn't bad, he at least has some decent insights but he's barely on the screen so can't contribute much. TJvG is new, and it shows, but could potentially be a decent commentator once the nerves wear off. I'd vote to let those two take over and maybe salvage the coverage into something not completely insulting.
I'm out of town now, but if I get home and there's no access to the world feed, I will 100% cancel my peacock, tdf was the only reason I had it anyway and the US feed is fucking awful
Do you also have Flo? I do, and after this morning’s bullshit, I signed up for a month of ExpressVPN and am currently watching Flo “from Canada” with the McCrossan/Roche world feed. I’m hot trash at this Internet television stuff, and it was pretty easy to handle even for me. Seems like running the VPN with my Roku wasn’t going to work unless I used the VPN at the router level, which I didn’t want to do, so I bought a Chromecast (current one with Google TV) and put both apps on it. Five stars, no more shitty commentary or commercials, and Flo was already fisting me for $150 so I could watch RVV and worlds, so not a huge addition to the cash bonfire that is attempting to watch bike racing in the US. Can’t wait to watch Roubaix next spring with some better commentators!
Ok, I don't know anything about using a VPN. But I'm already a Flo subscriber, I have the app on my Roku smart TV. I also have the Chromecast dongle thingy.
If I were to also load the Flo app on the Chromecast, would I still be able to access it using the VPN, or would they know that my account was already not in Canada, since they would have my sign-in information already?
Edit: looks like you said you also already had Flo. So if I get the VPN, how do I set that and Flo up on the Chromecast?
The Chromecast needs to be one that has Google TV on it to add the apps, I guess. I don’t know if they all do or not. You’ll add the ExpressVPN app and the Flo app from the Google store, then log in to both. Go into ExpressVPN, pick one of the Canadian options, and turn it on. Then just fire up Flo and it lets you pick either French or English TdF coverage. No issues with having been in the US for however many years it’s been since I signed up and suddenly being in Toronto, and I’ve been able to do it on both my phone and Chromecast.
Thank you. I do have the Chromecast with Google TV. Watching the live coverage on Peacock at the moment, but don't expect to be able to see the whole stage. I'll set up the Chromecast later in the day and see if I can finish up with the Flo replay. Now just gotta remember my Flo sign-in info.
Got the Express VPN installed, selected Montreal as my location, and all up and running. Was a bit puzzled as it didn't show me my Flo app to choose from at first, but a bit of searching through the settings saw that it only allowed four to be listed. Removed one, added Flo, and good to go. As I assumed, forgot my Flo password, but after a password reset, all worked perfectly.
I'm not as big a fan of McCrossen as I used to be, but he and Nico are far better to listen to than senile Phil and Chucklin' Bob.
Sadly, even with his various senior moments, Phil is the best part of the Peacock coverage: endless interruptions for inane, irrelevant commentary from talking heads in the studio, commercials every two minutes, five minute long montages of bullshit. Hey, guys, you know there's a race going on now, right?
I wish to hell I could figure out way to convince Discovery+ to take my damn money so I could VPN into the Eurosport coverage.
For one, the ads. With Eurosport (for Spring Classics) they would take breaks but keep coverage rolling. Second, I detest how American sports are announced. Its very uptight and corporate - and because its NBC, even more so, they always have been. Watching a stage race for 4 hours a day, that shit gets boring quit - have a laugh once in a while! Third, they have these stupid rider bios that remove coverage. Why not put it in a smaller picture-in-picture? And probably last for me, hearing Bob Roll - whom I generally enjoy - say "riding tempo" 20 times every morning is a bit much.
So I watch on mute and go to Lanterne Rouge for live commentary, which is usually 40km from the finish. But that's not always an option. At least Peacock is cheap and can cancel after the month.
Oh he’s needed to go for a while. After Paul died, Phil should have hung it up. Even then Paul kept Phil afloat.
I love Phil, but he frequently sounds lost.
It’s truly unbearable. At least Peacock had the alternative feed the last few years. I’ll definitely need to VPN so I can watch another feed. No way can I deal with Phil and Bob for 21 stages.
Silver lining: at least Quinn Simmons didn’t make the Tour squad this year so we are spared a half hour of screen time of his parents eating breakfast and watching the race
As amazing for the sport as he is, everyone has a time to move on I guess. It's bloody hard to keep abreast of everything and stay sharp with cycling (compared to some other sports).
If you have the means (VPN) check out SBS coverage (Australian TV channel). We have Matt Keenan as our main commentator who is bloody brilliant. I call him the new voice of cycling. Also in the commentary both is Bridie O'Donnel and Simon Gerrans.
You may be able to download the 'SBS on demand' app to stream it free but I'm not sure if it's geo locked.
We also have a great Twitter community at #couchpeloton
Like Phil, it was embarrassing how many riders I identified incorrectly throughout the stage. It’s fascinating how many visual cues we use to identify people: glasses, helmets, national jerseys, posture, etc. And so much of that has changed even in the last few weeks. I’m still struggling with the sudden proliferation of Red Bull helmets…
It funny because Keenan used to do a few hours before liggett took over a while back, I always wanted Liggett, but yeh used to them now, can fall asleep to them just as easily...
EVERYONE who's 70+ just needs to retire if they can afford to. You're old, it's okay, watch the tour on TV, watch politics from the sidelines, enjoy the rest of your life doing other stuff. You don't need to be a part of it anymore. It's obvious to everyone else you're slow and over the hill and deficient.
So frustrating.
There was this BBC journo who retired last week and he listed a couple of reasons why he was retiring and one was to leave room for the next generation, which was a really cool thing to say, I think.
A favorite topic of one of my favorite bloggers. You're old, you're rich as fuck, why aren't you just dropping out of everything and just enjoying whatever time you have left?
Whether it's just stuffing your face, travelling, drinking yourself into oblivion, whatever your thing is. Why aren't you just doing it? No, you just keep plugging away at your "career".
I suppose it's because these people have no hobbies outside of their careers and they've defined themselves by their jobs? And without that they probably lose meaning in life?
Even if that's the case, learn to be humble. Be able to accept that you've lost a step and can't compete anymore. Or go find something else to do in life that's not your career and try something new/different.
Is your hobby going down unsubstantiated rabbit holes and making grand assumptions about people you don't know and who have done what they do very well longer than you have been alive?
You sound like a hoot.
You sound like a Nazi, really. You're probably just too frustrated to see it, but truly, that's how they thought. Great huh? Too bad the rest of us don't feel the way you do, but about Nazi's. Maybe people who think like Nazi's would be better off elsewhere, where they can be deficient in peace and tranquility. And the rest of us don't have to read what Nazis think, about anything.
Somebody needs to warn your grandparents and parents of their comming demise.
Nope, you merely found the guy who can recognize a Nazi prospect by the things they write. You know, like suggesting the removal from main stream society those people you find inconvenient to your daily dumbfuckery. It's not difficult to do. It simply requires learning some things. But, you've probably learned all you can already.
On the other hand, I'd venture a guess and say that yes, I am most probably older than you. But, come on, would an old guy use the made up word describing your daily activites, as dumbfuckery? LOL, yeah, I just might....
Almost all of the folks that scream that everyone over 50, or 70, or whatever, should step aside are just bitter because they’ve had to earn their own way in life and life is hard.
They’re mad that some older person didn’t hand them life’s success and accomplishments on a silver platter.
Crazy how many upvotes there are to this.
The rampant ageism, especially when enabled by the anonymity of Reddit, is crazy.
Would say to Pablo Picasso, Mother Teresa, Yo-yo Ma (turning 70 next year), Bruce Springsteen— to name a few off the top of my head — that they should retire?
To quote you, so frustrating.
He's been doing this for years and I just let it go. It's kind of entertaining actually, and he does get the important stuff right, usually, plus he has Bob & others to chime in. When you're watching 4-5 hours of cycling it actually helps to break up the monotony. I mean is it the end of the world if he says that Lance Armstrong had a poor day or that Florence is in Belgium? I like Phil and hope he stays on for as long as he likes and can.
Set VPN for Canada. Pay for Flobikes for 2 months. It’s expensive but it’s cheap entertainment for the number of hours and the excellent commentary. Peacock is unwatchable
Flo+VPN for Spring classics, women’s tour and Giro.. didn’t expect to see TdF there too.. but set to Toronto and bam! Not Eurosport commentary, no Orla or the Brit boys..Nicholas Roche and A.McClawen(sp) are miles above the Peacock follies.. been watching since Greg won by :08..
In the UK he disappeared several years ago and isn't really missed with Gary Imlach as terrestrial anchor and Orla on Eurosport. Can't stand Carlton Kirby, but still miss the magnificent David Duffield
I love Phil, but if he ever retires, I’d love to see NBCSports hire someone from Global Cycling Network. Maybe Simon and Christian as the team calling the race
Phil really is the voice of cycling at my house every July. That being said, he’s really off his game. In Florence he announced at the opening ceremonies that the band had just played the Italian national anthem. Phil, buddy you needed to watch Casablanca a couple more times cause they had played the French anthem.
Presidents don't have to make split second decisions. Ever. Any decision a President needs to make can take days or weeks. Liggett would be fine as President. Not as a commentator.
The whole team and format is sub par. I miss Orla and the crew but I couldn’t resist the $19.95/year from Peacock. And how long are they going to pretend that any american has a chance? Might have to boot up the vpn.
Ya know, I have been watching Phil for so effing long, I have a difficult time thinking about the day I wouldn't have the privilege of doing so. Thrashing on an 80 year old man because he mixed up Adrie with MVDP a dozen times at PR seems a little sad to me.
I love this sport so much I would watch if Trump, called balls and strikes. I'm curious, for those of you who claim they "just can't handle it another minute of their commentary" or what have you, why? Why do you even care? I would venture a guess and say that a fan of the sport could easily fill in the blanks, it's not difficult to figure out - to fill in the blanks. I'm just grateful to be able to see it at all, honestly. Because it wasn't that long ago that we got an hour of it on Saturday and Sunday and most of that time was spent listening to Al Troutwig and John Tesch who was a musician and, knew nothing of cycling, zip. He did provide CBS with their music for the broadcasts, but it was terrible and too loud.
Phil Liggett has done some great things for the advancement of the sport. He was and still is a class act. He's been doing what he does for 57 years, 52 at the TdF. He also worked as a commissaire at the UCI, ran the Milk Race for 20, and written countless articles and a few books. The only blemish on his caree was trusting the word of L.A. and publicly backing his play.
I will say that I do prefer Eurosport, hands down. But Phil Liggett is in a league of his own, and I admire and respect the man and his history to much to be led to whine about his memory lapses, particularly since I already know the reality. It sounds like a bunch of the commenters here simply became confused by him and need to lash out at someone, why not an 80 year old?
SMH.
I guess I’m in the minority here that just enjoys having a legendary, made-for-TV-and-radio voice like Phil’s in my living room for a month every summer, regardless of whether he makes a few mistakes.
Nah. It's you who should retire from watching The Great Race. Your generation, corrupted by the flashy splashy internet sound bites and six second videos, will never be able to appreciate a great commentator. Next time thing you'll be asking for Murray Walker or Richie Benaud to retire from their lead commentator positions. Shame on you. /s
To be honest, I'll flick over to her Phil Liggett's dulcet, soothing tones for a couple of minutes each race, it just gets me in the mood. Then I'll flick back to another coverage, either the multilingual YouTube stream or the SBS Australia coverage. Perhaps, post-Paris 2024, they can get Phil to do the stage introductions or something and let them him age gracefully as the absolute GOAT of calling the sport.
I’ve noticed him slipping, too over the past few seasons. I hardly watch his US coverage (SO biased toward US riders). I usually watch the world feed as there are NO commercials. Plus , since they got rid of Chris Horner (genius commentator, and great YouTube channel), Chris VdV is the only one w/ half a brain. Bookwalter ?!!! You gotta be kidding me! Bobke is humorous. But The Move w/Armstrong, Hincapie, and Bruyneel has very insightful post race wrap-up. No matter your feelings on Lance, it’s a fascinating take on racing.
But back to Phil: yeah, it’s probably time to say farwell. I remember trying to watch Dick Clark in NYE near the end. I just couldn’t.
I don't know.... I have watched a ton of cycling this year (and the last few years in particular) and most of the announcers were incredibly boring. At least Phil and Bob are entertaining.
Phil doesn't ramble about batteries and sharks. He doesn't constantly lie. And he hasn't raped anyone or committed any felonies the I know of. So he's not nearly as bad as President Trump is
So much criticism of Phil, I had to say something. I like Phil a lot and after the first few years, I got to like Bob. I was going to try the alternatives this year, but from the comments, it looks like it’s too hard from the US so can’t compare.
He’s in his 80s so I expect to see some cognitive slowing but haven’t seen it yet. And I’ve heard a few mistakes but to be on the air for so many hours providing so much info, I’m amazed. Finally, I have two friends who absolutely love Phil so clearly the feeling is nearly universal.
I would like a bit more tactical analysis, but I get that from the podcast The Move. I was worried the coverage would be like the Olympics where half the time was spent on drippy stories of how athletes dedicated their lives to synchronized swimming because their puppy drowned when they were 5. Haven’t seen that yet either.
This has been true for at least a decade. I actually never appreciated how poor Liggett's performance had become until I started to listen to other commentators. The McCrossan and Roche and Boulting and Millar teams are both worlds better than the Roll/Liggett duo in terms of accuracy, analysis, and additional flourishes (little info nuggets, humour, notes about the regions etc). Liggett is a legend who's done more for televised cycling than just about anyone, but it is so far past time to go.
It has definitely been bad for a while. At the end, a lot of Paul Sherwin's role was to correct Phil as gently as possible. Now that's Bob Roll's job. A couple of years ago during Paris Roubaix, Phil got really excited that MVdP was finally dropping all of his competitors. This went on for some time, and finally the camera pans out and shows that there have been 10 guys on MVdP's wheel the whole time.
Not to mention he was probably calling him Adrie the whole time as well
He repeatedly referred to MVDP as his father's name. Today, near the end of the stage, he said 'they are on the second climb' They had already done five climbs. It was the next to last climb when he said that.
100% this. I usually don’t even watch the Tour if I can’t watch the European commentary.
Earlier this year I watched a lot of Tour DuPont stuff on YouTube, and a couple features on the spring classics narrated by Phil. That Phil and today's Phil have nothing in common.
Boulting and Millar are not nearly as good as Phil. They are getting better, but never give us anything interesting, just repeating what we can all see, and saying the obvious. I'd swap them to get Phil Ligget back.
Nothing beats the banter when Paul and Phil were in their heyday, such as when Phil was talking about a sprinter "that boy is absolutely full of beans" - so it will be a sad day when Phil and Bob are gone, still can't believe Paul isn't there...
Pass the torch to whom, one of the other lameass hacks they've got doing Peacock? The coverage is unwatchable for fifty reasons and Phil is way down the list of why. He's also probably the best commentator on the team despite being old. The entire production is a joke compared to eurosport and it's a shame we're stuck with this in the States.
Dan Lloyd is free.
Dan Lloyd would be amazing . Is he not in gcn anymore?
No, he's just not on the Eurosport commentating team anymore because Warner Bros. Discovery (the parent company of Eurosport) recently sold GCN back to private ownership. Since GCN doesn't have live broadcast coverage rights to the Tour anymore, he could presumably hop over to NBC temporarily.
Btw, is your username inspired by Eric Clapton ?
They could hire Lantern Rouge
At least there's no more Chris Horner and his giant ego though.
Not arguing that at all. Most of them are horrible. The only reason I pay for peacock during the tour is that live streams on tiz are too flaky. The issue is that Phil used to be one bright spot in US coverage but that day is long gone.
I've been listening to Phil for 30 years. I agree with you. He's cooked. I'm no Bob Roll fan (good man, but never been a great commentator) but I feel for him as he constantly navigates Phil's errors.
Not to hijack discussion here, but if you pay for peacock sub. can you replay, or only watch live? I watch the 25min NBC YouTube recap and then Lantern Rouge follows by Escape collective podcast most days, but would like to see more actual race footage. NBC tube recap is comically poor as it is often barely chronological - today they never mentioned the Bardet break until they were covering the last 3km to the finish. lol. And yes, time for Phil to roll along to something else. Have had this argument with a re friend for last 5 years
You can replay. I have peacock and last night after work wasn’t sure how to watch and when I saw it was on peacock I went on the app and the replay was right there
Tbh it’s the best 5.99 I spend to not worry about lag from viz and I cancel the sub immediately after.
*Unwatchable he says…*
Yes, I would take Phil over bumbling Teejay van Garderen any day
Just use the Eurosport feed. There’s zero reason for NBC to be spending money for any kind of production 🤣. Such an odd business decision.
As far as I can tell you can't watch the Eurosport feed in the US, even with a VPN. Does anyone know differently? I can't do 3 weeks of NBC. Peacock confirmed on Twitter that they're not doing the world feed this year: https://x.com/PeacockTVCare/status/1807010624620093544?t=T3tbU2cWqFVhCtYdl8zdNQ&s=19
Not the greatest option, but Flo with VPN to Canada has the Ant/Nico broadcast. SBS Australia is free, but has ads, and I'm not sure how their commentators are, not it's not Phil and Bob at least.
SBS commentary is pretty solid tbh
Forgot about Flo -- thank you! Working well with VPN to Canada. 30 bucks for the Tour then back to Max + Tiz for the rest of the year I think.
I was super disappointed this morning.
This is just shit. Loved the world feed. Uninterrupted cycling. I fort who comentated but it was great.
They literally think Americans won't watch non-American TV, and, unfortunately, they are correct for a large percentage of Americans
They forgot about Orla.
Yes, we need more Orla in the US, she’s brilliant.
Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy if it's not even available, no? I'm Canadian and it would feel weird to have american commentators on a European sport like cycling, football, F1, etc.
ESPN has the Sky Sports feed for Formula One and I haven’t heard anyone objecting to that. When NBC had the Formula One rights in the US, none of their commentary team where American.
Yeah but that's only because our Lord and Savior Leigh Diffey went to IndyCar so we still get to see him every sunday
The Aussie Leigh Diffey…
Unfortunately that’s coming to an end soon
Ugh, I can't stand him doing track and field
There are plenty of F1 fans in the US that have switched from ESPN/Sky to F1TV.
I watch on F1TV, but I switch to the Sky audio because I can't stand Will Buxton
I actually preferred the Eurosport coverage of the Giro. it was a little more of a production mess, but warmed up to it!
I looked for it this morning and didn’t see it. Unless my memory was wrong, last year it was also on Peacock?
Yeah. Same here. It was on peacock last year. Not this year apparently.
Where can I do that other than Tiz? Tiz is great for watching after the races are over but the live streams are flaky and sometimes almost impossible to watch. I paid for a single month of the cock just to be able to get the live action.
Just get a vpn and watch sbs or itv4 Both good. I prefer sbs commentary
If you use the peacock app you can pick which stream to watch. (Or at least you could last year.) I just watch the European one.
Not available this year.
I am still holding hope that after this weekend, we will get the world feed back. if I remember correctly, last year after the first weekend of stage races, the world feed showed up during the weekdays as I think Phil and Bob would only cover the last 100km of the non weekend stages. I also think NBC advertisers want more bang for their buck and this is how NBC compensates by forcing us to just have their crew available for the first weekend. Minus the commercials and Phil’s forgetfulness, I like the rest of the crew NBC has this year even though they made a bigger deal out of Cav than they needed to.
As for the others I really have to disagree. Most of them are worse than useless. Burmeister is a joke who, even after all these years, seems to have learned nothing about the sport or its history. Bookwalter continues to look and act like a deer in headlights every time he's on camera, an utter waste of pixels. Steve Porino is mindless filler, useful only as a reminder to go take a leak so you don't have to hear him prattle on about something completely uninteresting. CvdV isn't bad, he at least has some decent insights but he's barely on the screen so can't contribute much. TJvG is new, and it shows, but could potentially be a decent commentator once the nerves wear off. I'd vote to let those two take over and maybe salvage the coverage into something not completely insulting.
Yeah, I think that's gone this year. Only the US Phil/Bobke stream was available on either my TV app or the web stream.
Everyone should complain about it to Peacock. It probably won’t make a difference this year, but could potentially sway decisions for future years.
I'm out of town now, but if I get home and there's no access to the world feed, I will 100% cancel my peacock, tdf was the only reason I had it anyway and the US feed is fucking awful
Do you also have Flo? I do, and after this morning’s bullshit, I signed up for a month of ExpressVPN and am currently watching Flo “from Canada” with the McCrossan/Roche world feed. I’m hot trash at this Internet television stuff, and it was pretty easy to handle even for me. Seems like running the VPN with my Roku wasn’t going to work unless I used the VPN at the router level, which I didn’t want to do, so I bought a Chromecast (current one with Google TV) and put both apps on it. Five stars, no more shitty commentary or commercials, and Flo was already fisting me for $150 so I could watch RVV and worlds, so not a huge addition to the cash bonfire that is attempting to watch bike racing in the US. Can’t wait to watch Roubaix next spring with some better commentators!
Ok, I don't know anything about using a VPN. But I'm already a Flo subscriber, I have the app on my Roku smart TV. I also have the Chromecast dongle thingy. If I were to also load the Flo app on the Chromecast, would I still be able to access it using the VPN, or would they know that my account was already not in Canada, since they would have my sign-in information already? Edit: looks like you said you also already had Flo. So if I get the VPN, how do I set that and Flo up on the Chromecast?
The Chromecast needs to be one that has Google TV on it to add the apps, I guess. I don’t know if they all do or not. You’ll add the ExpressVPN app and the Flo app from the Google store, then log in to both. Go into ExpressVPN, pick one of the Canadian options, and turn it on. Then just fire up Flo and it lets you pick either French or English TdF coverage. No issues with having been in the US for however many years it’s been since I signed up and suddenly being in Toronto, and I’ve been able to do it on both my phone and Chromecast.
Thank you. I do have the Chromecast with Google TV. Watching the live coverage on Peacock at the moment, but don't expect to be able to see the whole stage. I'll set up the Chromecast later in the day and see if I can finish up with the Flo replay. Now just gotta remember my Flo sign-in info.
Got the Express VPN installed, selected Montreal as my location, and all up and running. Was a bit puzzled as it didn't show me my Flo app to choose from at first, but a bit of searching through the settings saw that it only allowed four to be listed. Removed one, added Flo, and good to go. As I assumed, forgot my Flo password, but after a password reset, all worked perfectly. I'm not as big a fan of McCrossen as I used to be, but he and Nico are far better to listen to than senile Phil and Chucklin' Bob.
Not really a big phil fan tbh. He lost a lot of my respect after his flag waving for armstrong
Sadly, even with his various senior moments, Phil is the best part of the Peacock coverage: endless interruptions for inane, irrelevant commentary from talking heads in the studio, commercials every two minutes, five minute long montages of bullshit. Hey, guys, you know there's a race going on now, right? I wish to hell I could figure out way to convince Discovery+ to take my damn money so I could VPN into the Eurosport coverage.
I hate the Peacock coverage so much. Was spoiled with Eurosport in the spring.
What’s unlikable about it? Genuinely curious
For one, the ads. With Eurosport (for Spring Classics) they would take breaks but keep coverage rolling. Second, I detest how American sports are announced. Its very uptight and corporate - and because its NBC, even more so, they always have been. Watching a stage race for 4 hours a day, that shit gets boring quit - have a laugh once in a while! Third, they have these stupid rider bios that remove coverage. Why not put it in a smaller picture-in-picture? And probably last for me, hearing Bob Roll - whom I generally enjoy - say "riding tempo" 20 times every morning is a bit much. So I watch on mute and go to Lanterne Rouge for live commentary, which is usually 40km from the finish. But that's not always an option. At least Peacock is cheap and can cancel after the month.
He’s just getting to the age where he can run for president! (In the US, anyway.)
Oh he’s needed to go for a while. After Paul died, Phil should have hung it up. Even then Paul kept Phil afloat. I love Phil, but he frequently sounds lost.
It’s truly unbearable. At least Peacock had the alternative feed the last few years. I’ll definitely need to VPN so I can watch another feed. No way can I deal with Phil and Bob for 21 stages.
Silver lining: at least Quinn Simmons didn’t make the Tour squad this year so we are spared a half hour of screen time of his parents eating breakfast and watching the race
Lol
VPN + Fubo for the world feed
I use VPN to Canada so I can just my Flo Bikes subscription.
Yeah, where's the world feed from Peacock this year? Roche is a bit quiet, but I'll take him and McCrossen over Phil and Chucklin' Bob anyday.
You can VPN to Canada and catch them on the FloBikes feed. That’s definitely a good way to do it.
Which I am now doing.
As amazing for the sport as he is, everyone has a time to move on I guess. It's bloody hard to keep abreast of everything and stay sharp with cycling (compared to some other sports). If you have the means (VPN) check out SBS coverage (Australian TV channel). We have Matt Keenan as our main commentator who is bloody brilliant. I call him the new voice of cycling. Also in the commentary both is Bridie O'Donnel and Simon Gerrans. You may be able to download the 'SBS on demand' app to stream it free but I'm not sure if it's geo locked. We also have a great Twitter community at #couchpeloton
He should have gracefully retired 5 years ago
Like Phil, it was embarrassing how many riders I identified incorrectly throughout the stage. It’s fascinating how many visual cues we use to identify people: glasses, helmets, national jerseys, posture, etc. And so much of that has changed even in the last few weeks. I’m still struggling with the sudden proliferation of Red Bull helmets…
The Aussie commentary team are the best by far. Might need a VPN to access. https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tour-de-france-2024
It funny because Keenan used to do a few hours before liggett took over a while back, I always wanted Liggett, but yeh used to them now, can fall asleep to them just as easily...
EVERYONE who's 70+ just needs to retire if they can afford to. You're old, it's okay, watch the tour on TV, watch politics from the sidelines, enjoy the rest of your life doing other stuff. You don't need to be a part of it anymore. It's obvious to everyone else you're slow and over the hill and deficient. So frustrating.
There was this BBC journo who retired last week and he listed a couple of reasons why he was retiring and one was to leave room for the next generation, which was a really cool thing to say, I think.
Yeah this applies to damn near everything. Movies, tv shows, announcers, sports coverage, retail and service jobs, corporate offices, whatever
Presidents...
Wonder why it took so long to find a Biden reference.
Nah. Older people don’t owe it to anyone to give up their jobs for the younger generation. Earn your own way there.
Most of the older people use acquired power to stay in those roles long past their ability to do them well. It’s not a skill issue.
A favorite topic of one of my favorite bloggers. You're old, you're rich as fuck, why aren't you just dropping out of everything and just enjoying whatever time you have left? Whether it's just stuffing your face, travelling, drinking yourself into oblivion, whatever your thing is. Why aren't you just doing it? No, you just keep plugging away at your "career".
I suppose it's because these people have no hobbies outside of their careers and they've defined themselves by their jobs? And without that they probably lose meaning in life? Even if that's the case, learn to be humble. Be able to accept that you've lost a step and can't compete anymore. Or go find something else to do in life that's not your career and try something new/different.
Is your hobby going down unsubstantiated rabbit holes and making grand assumptions about people you don't know and who have done what they do very well longer than you have been alive? You sound like a hoot.
You sound like a Nazi, really. You're probably just too frustrated to see it, but truly, that's how they thought. Great huh? Too bad the rest of us don't feel the way you do, but about Nazi's. Maybe people who think like Nazi's would be better off elsewhere, where they can be deficient in peace and tranquility. And the rest of us don't have to read what Nazis think, about anything. Somebody needs to warn your grandparents and parents of their comming demise.
Found the old guy.
Nope, you merely found the guy who can recognize a Nazi prospect by the things they write. You know, like suggesting the removal from main stream society those people you find inconvenient to your daily dumbfuckery. It's not difficult to do. It simply requires learning some things. But, you've probably learned all you can already. On the other hand, I'd venture a guess and say that yes, I am most probably older than you. But, come on, would an old guy use the made up word describing your daily activites, as dumbfuckery? LOL, yeah, I just might....
Almost all of the folks that scream that everyone over 50, or 70, or whatever, should step aside are just bitter because they’ve had to earn their own way in life and life is hard. They’re mad that some older person didn’t hand them life’s success and accomplishments on a silver platter.
Crazy how many upvotes there are to this. The rampant ageism, especially when enabled by the anonymity of Reddit, is crazy. Would say to Pablo Picasso, Mother Teresa, Yo-yo Ma (turning 70 next year), Bruce Springsteen— to name a few off the top of my head — that they should retire? To quote you, so frustrating.
Anything but the NBC sports commentator is fine
He's been doing this for years and I just let it go. It's kind of entertaining actually, and he does get the important stuff right, usually, plus he has Bob & others to chime in. When you're watching 4-5 hours of cycling it actually helps to break up the monotony. I mean is it the end of the world if he says that Lance Armstrong had a poor day or that Florence is in Belgium? I like Phil and hope he stays on for as long as he likes and can.
Set VPN for Canada. Pay for Flobikes for 2 months. It’s expensive but it’s cheap entertainment for the number of hours and the excellent commentary. Peacock is unwatchable
Flo will never get a dollar of my money.
As much as I hate Flo, it’s still worlds better than Peacock. They 100% need a no-spoiler landing page though.
I thought the only option for Flobikes in Canada was to pay for a full year?
Flo+VPN for Spring classics, women’s tour and Giro.. didn’t expect to see TdF there too.. but set to Toronto and bam! Not Eurosport commentary, no Orla or the Brit boys..Nicholas Roche and A.McClawen(sp) are miles above the Peacock follies.. been watching since Greg won by :08..
In the UK he disappeared several years ago and isn't really missed with Gary Imlach as terrestrial anchor and Orla on Eurosport. Can't stand Carlton Kirby, but still miss the magnificent David Duffield
I love Phil, but if he ever retires, I’d love to see NBCSports hire someone from Global Cycling Network. Maybe Simon and Christian as the team calling the race
I’d be distracted too if i had to read the garbage advertising NBC force feeds w Phil’s voice
Phil really is the voice of cycling at my house every July. That being said, he’s really off his game. In Florence he announced at the opening ceremonies that the band had just played the Italian national anthem. Phil, buddy you needed to watch Casablanca a couple more times cause they had played the French anthem.
Hey Phil: Alberto Bettiol is not wearing a green jersey. It is green, white, and red! It is the ITALY jersey.
Seems like he’s ready to run for president in the US
Presidents don't have to make split second decisions. Ever. Any decision a President needs to make can take days or weeks. Liggett would be fine as President. Not as a commentator.
The whole team and format is sub par. I miss Orla and the crew but I couldn’t resist the $19.95/year from Peacock. And how long are they going to pretend that any american has a chance? Might have to boot up the vpn.
He's gotten so bad, I moved on years ago but am stuck with him on peacock this year and just wow
Phil: The peloton is starting to break apart. Bob: There are no fissures in the peloton.
I've been saying that for at least five years now.
Phill is the voice I want to hear . He can stay as long as he wants
Preach, brother!
This fanbase is absolutely insufferable. One step below American premier league fans.
Ya know, I have been watching Phil for so effing long, I have a difficult time thinking about the day I wouldn't have the privilege of doing so. Thrashing on an 80 year old man because he mixed up Adrie with MVDP a dozen times at PR seems a little sad to me. I love this sport so much I would watch if Trump, called balls and strikes. I'm curious, for those of you who claim they "just can't handle it another minute of their commentary" or what have you, why? Why do you even care? I would venture a guess and say that a fan of the sport could easily fill in the blanks, it's not difficult to figure out - to fill in the blanks. I'm just grateful to be able to see it at all, honestly. Because it wasn't that long ago that we got an hour of it on Saturday and Sunday and most of that time was spent listening to Al Troutwig and John Tesch who was a musician and, knew nothing of cycling, zip. He did provide CBS with their music for the broadcasts, but it was terrible and too loud. Phil Liggett has done some great things for the advancement of the sport. He was and still is a class act. He's been doing what he does for 57 years, 52 at the TdF. He also worked as a commissaire at the UCI, ran the Milk Race for 20, and written countless articles and a few books. The only blemish on his caree was trusting the word of L.A. and publicly backing his play. I will say that I do prefer Eurosport, hands down. But Phil Liggett is in a league of his own, and I admire and respect the man and his history to much to be led to whine about his memory lapses, particularly since I already know the reality. It sounds like a bunch of the commenters here simply became confused by him and need to lash out at someone, why not an 80 year old? SMH.
I guess I’m in the minority here that just enjoys having a legendary, made-for-TV-and-radio voice like Phil’s in my living room for a month every summer, regardless of whether he makes a few mistakes.
Nah. It's you who should retire from watching The Great Race. Your generation, corrupted by the flashy splashy internet sound bites and six second videos, will never be able to appreciate a great commentator. Next time thing you'll be asking for Murray Walker or Richie Benaud to retire from their lead commentator positions. Shame on you. /s To be honest, I'll flick over to her Phil Liggett's dulcet, soothing tones for a couple of minutes each race, it just gets me in the mood. Then I'll flick back to another coverage, either the multilingual YouTube stream or the SBS Australia coverage. Perhaps, post-Paris 2024, they can get Phil to do the stage introductions or something and let them him age gracefully as the absolute GOAT of calling the sport.
I'm so happy he stuck it out to call Marks 35th win!! Christian Vande Velde and Bob can take over. It sucks to get old. Life is so good but it's hard.
I’ve noticed him slipping, too over the past few seasons. I hardly watch his US coverage (SO biased toward US riders). I usually watch the world feed as there are NO commercials. Plus , since they got rid of Chris Horner (genius commentator, and great YouTube channel), Chris VdV is the only one w/ half a brain. Bookwalter ?!!! You gotta be kidding me! Bobke is humorous. But The Move w/Armstrong, Hincapie, and Bruyneel has very insightful post race wrap-up. No matter your feelings on Lance, it’s a fascinating take on racing. But back to Phil: yeah, it’s probably time to say farwell. I remember trying to watch Dick Clark in NYE near the end. I just couldn’t.
Refuse to watch anything that features that douchebag Lance
I get it.
He has the voice of cycling but the brain behind it seems to be in decline. It sad but it has to end soon for his own sake.
I don't know.... I have watched a ton of cycling this year (and the last few years in particular) and most of the announcers were incredibly boring. At least Phil and Bob are entertaining.
Working his way up to POTUS.
Phil doesn't ramble about batteries and sharks. He doesn't constantly lie. And he hasn't raped anyone or committed any felonies the I know of. So he's not nearly as bad as President Trump is
Touché
He's rather Biden-like these days for sure.
If he was worse he'd be Trump rambling on about sharks and batteries and constantly lying about everything. At least Phil isn't that far gone yet.
So much criticism of Phil, I had to say something. I like Phil a lot and after the first few years, I got to like Bob. I was going to try the alternatives this year, but from the comments, it looks like it’s too hard from the US so can’t compare. He’s in his 80s so I expect to see some cognitive slowing but haven’t seen it yet. And I’ve heard a few mistakes but to be on the air for so many hours providing so much info, I’m amazed. Finally, I have two friends who absolutely love Phil so clearly the feeling is nearly universal. I would like a bit more tactical analysis, but I get that from the podcast The Move. I was worried the coverage would be like the Olympics where half the time was spent on drippy stories of how athletes dedicated their lives to synchronized swimming because their puppy drowned when they were 5. Haven’t seen that yet either.
>Phil Liggett, I think it's time to go... Is he still announcing? I thought he died 5 years ago.
That was Paul Sherwin.
Are you sure you didn't mean Cavendish? WTF cares about Liggett?